Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: Africa, Children's Books, good books and places to get them

This topic has 22 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 4 months ago by Ruth Barron.

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November 22, 2011 at 5:07 pm
Tia
Participant
I’m just looking for a little affirmation in my state of exasperation.
My dd7 loves to read. I’ve worked diligently to make sure everything (most everything) i’ve read aloud to her over the last 7 years was twaddle-free, rich, thought provoking, and on and on. I want the same things for her independent reading. But I am, quite simply, running out of books! i know there have to be a lot out there. I read the Little House series to her last year, before she could read them on her own. So she isn’t ready to really re-read all of those, though she has read a couple. So many of the books I pick up, pre-read, or even let her begin, are disappointing to me. Kids who are disrespectful, 5 year olds having crushes, the teacher portrayed as a saint…and these are older, book-list worthy books!! i feel like i can’t let her read anything published after the 60’s in an effort to provide morally sound literature.
I think it is sad that I can’t allow my daughter to read hardly anything published in the last 40 years. When she is older, i will let her branch out, using the opportunity to strengthen her faith and reaffirm what she’s been taught…but right now, in these fomative years, I am EXTREMELY picky about her reading. As a result, my choices are narrow and I am in a constant state of pre-reading, researching, and exploring to make sure to keep a book in her hands! SHEESH!
Thanks for letting me vent. That’s all…now I can go on with my day…lol
November 22, 2011 at 8:20 pm
amandajhilburn
Participant
Yep. I feel your pain. It is even harder to find books for boys. For some reason,modern day authors think that in order to keep the interest of boys one must be rude, crude, and lewd! My children are a little older than yours (11 & 9), and now THEY get aggravated with books they pick out and try to read. It’s really sad.
Classics are gonna be your best choices.I have sometimes found that they are way above the reading level you need for young readers, though. Just start with the SCM curriculum guide and go from there 🙂 Here is a link to a list I made: http://teachthemdiligently-amanda.blogspot.com/2010/11/good-books-for-little-folks.html
November 22, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Misty
Participant
thanks amanda, I agree boys books are very hard. They are all cruel, killing, or some other nonsense. I can’t wait to check out some books. Thanks for sharing
November 22, 2011 at 8:26 pm
amandajhilburn
Participant
You are very welcome 🙂

November 22, 2011 at 8:38 pm
Sara B.
Participant
One thing I’ve thought about doing is going ahead and getting the books for their age level in the modules we aren’t in yet. At least they’ll have something decent to read, and learning at the same time. 😉 These would just be as free reads, not required reading, to clarify. 🙂
Oh, and I completely agree with almost everything written after the 60s! Actually, I think it started in the 50s…..
November 22, 2011 at 8:46 pm
ebcsmom
Participant
I know how you feel we have the same problems, however I have found lots of help from the books, Honey for a Childs Heart, and Books Children Love to Read. I am very selective on what my children read as well, and I haven’t been disappointed with the any selection from those books. I can make a few suggestions however you daughter may have read some of these. I am finding boys books harder to find than girls. 🙁
My daughter has read and loved: Boxcar Children, Twig, Miss Hickory, Owl in the Shower(she loves owls and the author Jean Craighead George I think there were 2 cuss words in the book that you could mark through), Grandma’s Attic Series, The Cabin Faced West, Courage of Sarah Noble, Caddie Woodlawn and sequel, Little House, Lamplighter Books(she LOVES these), Billy and Blaze Series, American Girl Series: Kaya, Felicity,Kirsten, Addy, Josefina, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Betsy-Tacy, One Hundred Dresses,Understood Betsy, Narnia Series, Anne of Green Gables, Frog and Toad, Justin Morgan Had a Horse, Cinnabar,King of the Wind, Burgess Books, James Herriots Treasury for Children.
There are others, she really loves to read as well and this is most of what she has read this summer and fall. I also let her get good easy books to read that are on my list. Yes she can finish them in no time, however its still great lit and might have been a book we missed in read alouds when she was younger. I print out my list of things she can read and we just work down the list. I use those two books for suggestions as well as the book finder here, and other Charlotte Mason friendly curriculums. However my go too more often than not is Books Children Love, and Honey for a Childs Heart. I also let her check out reference books at the library on things she is interested in. For instance she LOVES owls, so she has been checking out lots of reference books on owls to read even some from the adult section. This may not be what others might do, however I like for my children to read, and it doesn’t have to be just fiction. They love to read about things they are interested in and learn as much as they can about that certain thing, mainly animals or things in nature. I hope you find more books for her soon! 🙂

November 22, 2011 at 9:23 pm
Bookworm
Participant
I also want to encourage people to look at Jan Bloom’s two books, Who Should We Then Read? vols. 1 and 2. I can’t even tell you how many books we took from these lists and enjoyed. Some are harder to find, but many popped up in odd places for us and kept us busy for YEARS.
November 22, 2011 at 10:18 pm
missceegee
Participant
I ditto Bookworm’s post. Jan’s books are very helpful.
November 22, 2011 at 10:30 pm
RobinP
Participant
That is exactly the reason I started my lending library. Most of my books are OOP and were written during what Michelle Miller calls “the golden age of children’s literature.” Now over 15,000 books later (and probably 15,000 more I’d love to have) I have a pretty extensive collection that other homeschoolers in the area can check out. I also recommend Jan Bloom’s books. Also Michelle Miller’s TruthQuest guides are treasures. Even if you don’t use the curriculum for history, her book lists are invaluable.
November 22, 2011 at 11:35 pm
ebcsmom
Participant
RobinP,
Where have you found most of your OOP books? My friends and I already borrow books from each other, and we always have our eye out for books on our list everywhere! There are some books that I would really love to have but haven’t been able to find them anywhere. We don’t have a lending library nearby either.
November 22, 2011 at 11:49 pm
Sara B.
Participant
Robin, I’d love to know *where* you store all those books! LOL My dh would KILL me if I had that many! I’m almost to 2,000, though, I think…
November 22, 2011 at 11:57 pm
Sara B.
Participant
Can someone tell me who the author is of Books Children Love to Read? I’m having trouble finding it in the ILL search. Thanks!
November 23, 2011 at 12:29 am
ebcsmom
Participant
Sara B.,
Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson
November 23, 2011 at 1:34 am
sheraz
Participant
Don’t forget the books by Marguarite Henry. They are very good, and pre-1960’s. =) My dd loves them.
November 23, 2011 at 1:36 am
RobinP
Participant
I’m blessed that the house we bought 8 years ago has a small finished apartment in the basement. It has a bathroom and a separate entrance, plus a “bedroom” that I use for book repair and materials. I think I can probably fit another 5000 books. After that we’ll have to add on to the house.
I get my books anywhere and everywhere. It used to be that I could go to library sales and rack up. I still sometimes do OK but I’m finding less and less that way. I buy most of my books now online…which is expensive. If there is a particular book I’m looking for, I search addall.com which lists that title from different sellers.
3littlegirls, there was a thread in the last week or two that discussed good books for girls. My boys are after me to read to them right now, but it shouldn’t be too far back. There were lots of good ideas there. Some have been reprinted but I know that finding the wonderful OOP books in the library nowadays is discouraging. Try ILL or, with Christmas coming up, maybe give a list of books to family members. I’ve sometimes asked for books for MY gifts and I almost always use any gift money I get for books for the library. I have a passion (dh calls it an obsession) to get these books into the hands of the next generation.